AbstractsPhysics

Optically resonant nanostructures have been incorporated into a variety of devices used in a number of different fields. In this thesis, we explore optically resonant nanostructures in two forms. First we investigate a relatively new material, gallium implanted silicon (Si:Ga). We cover the fabrication process and experimentally find the optical properties as a function of both dose and wavelength. We then use the properties of this new material to create suspended arrays of Si:Ga nanowires, and determine their optical characteristics. In the second part of this thesis, we use more conventional materials and fabrication procedures to investigate the phase effects of guided mode resonators. We look at the spectral phase effects for a grating coupled silicon-on-insulator based guided mode resonator. We also look the angular phase effects of a surface plasmon polariton based guided mode resonator, comparing experimental results to theory calculated with rigorous coupled wave analysis for both cases. In addition, the guided mode resonance is modeled as a Fano resonance to gain insight into the functional form of the phase. Knowing the phase response of guided mode resonances may allow the creation of guided mode resonance based devices with higher sensitivity than traditional reflectance based devices.